Reference no: EM133468919
Question: What is an emergency organization? "An emergency organization is charged with the responsibility of responding to emergency and disaster incidents such as fires, chemical spills, floods and hurricanes" (Fischer, 2008, p. 116). FEMA believes that a written comprehensive disaster plan is needed to show which office of agency will be in charge of what mitigation. For large emergency operations, all agencies will be working together in a unified command to mitigate the disaster. To have an effective organizational response, the Incident Command System or ICS needs to be utilized and used through the duration of the operation. As mentioned above, a unified command is a when different organizations have representatives taking charge of their operation. This isn't to confuse anyone, that because there are several organizations involved, there is only one incident commander. This is usually, the first operating agency, in this case the fire department. They remain in that role until they are relieved by a higher representative, and example would be Hurricane Katrina. At Katrina, first responders initially set-up a incident command, but as the operation and scope changed from rescue, to stabilization, to mitigation, to clean-up, and lastly restoring the community, the incident commanders change.
Case Study: The Case Study that I choose was from the second study, that dealt with the tornado at Andover, Kansas in 1991. The this example, and Katrina as the operations continued on the Incident Command changed, but they was still a unified command, as there were many players to include the fire, and police departments, city representatives, water, and emergency management to name a few. These are always complex operations, that need a unified command an ICS model to be used. This is because everyone responds to there next in command, and this keeps everyone from being undisciplined.
At the heart of all that first responders and public administrators do what they do, is to serve the public. The Bible has this to say about serving and selflessness, "See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all" (1 Thessalonians 5:15). Blessings.